Wireless communications devices may undergo various system acquisition processes in attempting to connect to a system. For example, a wireless device may scan the air interface for radio frequencies corresponding to particular networks. Such networks may be determined based on any of a number of prioritization schemes, such as based on recency of use, preference set forth by the service provider, etc. In a typical arrangement, an acquisition table may store acquisition information for the preferred networks of the service provider, with information for those networks to which the device recently connected being further stored in a most-recently-used table or list.
Multi-SIM wireless devices have become increasing popular because of their flexibility in service options and other features. One type of multi-SIM wireless device, a dual-SIM dual active (DSDA) device, allows simultaneous active connections with the networks corresponding to two SIMs. DSDA devices typically have separate transmit/receive chains associated with each SIM. Another type of multi-SIM wireless device, a dual-SIM dual standby (DSDS) device, allows selective communication on a first network while listening for pages on a second network. In various types of multi-SIM devices, each modem stack associated with a subscription may store its own acquisition preferences, such as using acquisition tables and most-recently used tables, and may independently perform service acquisition. Consequently, the modem stack associated with each SIM may independently scan the air interface for channels according to its own prioritization, which may prolong recovery time and/or consume a large amount of power.